USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waitsfield > Historical address delivered August 7, 1889, at the centennial celebration : commemorating the first settlement of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, by General Benjamin Wait > Part 1
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AUGUST 7, 1889 AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION WAITSFIELD, VERMONT
JONES
Gc 974.302 W13jo 1770927
M. D.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
C
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 5631
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
DELIVERED AUGUST 7, 1889,
AT THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
COMMEMORATING THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN OF
WAITSFIELD, VERMONT,
BY
GENERAL BENJAMIN WAIT.
BY DR. W. A. JONES.
1892 Caledonian Dress -- C. m. Stone & Company ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT.
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Jones, Walter A.
F 84385 .42 Historical address delivered August 7, 1889, at the centennial celebration commemorating the first settlement of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, by Gen- eral Benjamin Wait ... St. Johnsbury, Vt. , 1892.
SHELF CARS
B 10538
NL 31-2875
1770927
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Before the close of the French and English war in America, which resulted in the cession of Canada to the English in 1763, the territory of what is now called Vermont had remained very nearly in the condition of an unbroken and desolate wilderness.
A very few settlements had been begun near the Massachusetts line, and along the eastern border of Lake Champlain. They were, however, more like military posts than like actual permanent settlements.
The territory lying between the Connecticut river on the east, and the lake on the west, was dangerous and unattractive ground, liable if improved by settlers to suffer from frequent invasions by the French troops stationed in Canada, as well as by their Indian allies. It was, then, chiefly a "hunting ground and lurking place" for Indians, who were unwilling to make of it for themselves even a very permanent home, because its forests were too near unfriendly tribes occupying adjacent territory.
The submission of Canada to the English in 1763, and the outward movement of neighboring Indians,
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prepared the way for adventurous settlers and for land speculators, and during the following three or four years townships were granted, covering more than one- half of the territory of the state.
Then there began, in earnest, a drifting of inhabitants from the country lying south and southeast towards the wilderness of the New Hampshire grants, and then there followed another peculiar experience of hard toil, ' of frugality and heroism, illustrated by the early settlers of this land of the "Green Mountain Boys."
On this tide of immigration there came to Windsor in 1767 (third in the order of early settlers of that town- ship) the family of Benjamin Wait. It may have been the first shift made by this man and wife, in securing for themselves a permanent home; for though the hus- band was then thirty-one years of age, he had already been in military service six years, and his wife, Lois Gilbert Wait, was only eighteen.
They continued to live in Windsor twenty-two years, and there, it is supposed, their children were born, con- sisting of six sons and two daughters. In 1789 Gen. Wait removed to the township of Waitsfield, named in honor of him, and with his family began a settlement, which was at the same time the first settlement of the town and of the valley of Mad river.
Fifteen years after this event Mrs. Lois Wait died and was buried on the little mound in the meadow, . within a few feet or rods of the exact site of their first dwelling-house, where eighteen years later (in 1822) the remains of Gen. Wait were also deposited.
This brief outline barely touches, at distant points, the career of the subject of our sketch.
Some years ago the following brief tribute was pub-
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lished by an able editor of early Vermont history, Hon. E. P. Walton, who said of him: "Though not ranked among the few persons recognized as leaders of the peo- ple, and founders of the state, he has left a record, which is very remarkable for the many military and civil ser- vices recorded and the graces that prove and adorn a Christian character."
Let the following review also bear evidence that those words convey no extravagant eulogy by a writer who had seen some of the veritable traces of that life in the early records of our little commonwealth.
Benjamin Wait was born at Sudbury, Mass., ( a small town about twenty miles west from Boston) Feb. 13, 1736. He was connected with a respectable ancestry, that had then inhabited Boston and portions of east- ern Massachusetts and Connecticut during a period of more than a hundred years, and among whom were many men of more than ordinary character.
The record of his active life begins in 1755, when at the age of eighteen or nineteen years he entered military service at the call of Gen. Shirley, then the colonial Governor of Massachusetts, and under his command.
This was at the beginning of the war (to which allusion has already been made) that opened the terri- tory of Vermont to settlement.
There were fitted out that year four important and leading expeditions, directed against French forts on the northern and northwestern frontier of the English American colonies, and situated respectively in Nova Scotia, at Crown Point on Lake Champlain, at Fort Niagara, and at Fort DuQuesne on the present site of Pittsburg, Pa. In the allotment of service to the sever- al commands, Gen. Shirley and his Massachusetts men
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were expected to make their way westward, and, if possible, secure possession of Fort Niagara. This they failed to do. Many of our school children, even, can readily recall the story of the crushing defeat of Gen. Braddock at Fort DuQuesne, as described in their com- . mon school histories; but the thought may be a new one that this event had a near bearing on the course of the young soldier, Benjamin Wait.
That defeat appears to have turned Shirley's force aside in its course; for on account of its situation an attack on Fort Niagara was thus made extremely hazardous.
Halting at Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario, the little army constructed winter quarters, and awaited the next season's campaign.
That was a perilous decision. Early in the spring of 1756 a little fleet, under the French general, Montcalm, swept along the river St. Lawrence and over the lake, demolished the forts and captured fourteen hundred men.
The old story of the capture of our young soldier, Wait, is that "he was taken to Quebec, then to France, where he was re-taken by the English and carried to England, and in the following year returned to America."
Meantime failure and defeat had been a very common experience of the English troops in this war with France on American territory.
In 1758, Gen. Amherst, the British commander-in- chief, came to America. Gathering a large force of reg- ular and provincial troops at Boston, with whom young Wait re-enlisted, he sailed at once for the French fort at . Louisburg, on the island of Cape Briton, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was considered to be the strongest fortress in America. In less than two months the fort
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was taken. General Amherst with a part of his army returned to Boston, and from that place pushed his way through the forests to Albany, N. Y.
The next spring he engaged in the successful campaign of getting possession of Crown Point and Ticonderoga. This expedition also resulted in expelling the little 'squads of French and Indians that infested the northern shores of Lake Champlain and the upper banks of the Connecticut river.
There are sufficient reasons for believing that the course of these expeditions, thus far, indicates correctly the course of the subject of our sketch.
The campaigns of 1760, including the operations of other commands, closed that war.
The body of troops to which Wait was attached had then advanced as far west as Fort Pontchartrain in Detroit. From this place he was sent, with others under his command, to bring in the French garrisons stationed in Illinois, which included one at Fort Chicago, built on the present site of the great Western city which bears its name. This required a tedious journey of from three to four months, which ended suc- cessfully in March, 1761.
The climax of this early experience of war and im- prisonment was illustrated long ago in the following statement: "At twenty-five years of age he had been engaged in forty battles and skirmishes and had his clothing perforated many times with musket balls, but received no wound."
Six years afterwards this man of soldierly bearing, tall, erect, muscular and vigorous, laid the foundations of his forest home in Windsor. If he then had antici- pations of living a quiet, retired life, they were very im-
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perfectly realized. It was barely two years before he was called to act as a civil officer or deputy sheriff in arresting certain lawless depredations committed at " distant points.
Very soon the famous controversy with New York arose concerning jurisdiction and land titles in Vermont, in which he identified himself with the "Green Moun- tain Boys" in resisting the unjust claims of the New York authorities.
A few weeks after, the battles of Lexington and Con- cord were fought, in 1775. A convention of Cumber- land county (then embracing what are now Windsor and Windham counties) was called at Westminster to see what response its inhabitants would make to the provincial congress at New York concerning the op- pressive acts of Great Britain toward her American colonies. At that convention Benjamin Wait
was the only delegate from Windsor. There was then no state organization; no representa- tion in the Continentalcongress. They had merely the crudest form of civil government within the county. There was, however, a genuine and hearty patriotic ring in the resolutions that expressed the sense of that body of early settlers on that occasion. They resolved unanimously "that we will resist and oppose the said acts of parliament in conjunction with our brethren in America, at the expense of our lives and fortunes to the last extremity, if our duty to God and our country re- quires the same."
, Three days later, William Williams, Benjamin Wait and Joab Hoisington, citizens of that county, in a let- ter addressed to the president of the New York pro- vincial congress, tendered their services as colonel,
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lieut .- colonel and major ("in the order of their names") of a regiment to be raised in Cumberland county. They were duly commissioned for those positions, though not for the proposed regiment.
The next year, 1776, (memorable date) four com- panies of militia, bearing the suggestive name of "Rangers," were organized on the east side of the Green Mountains.
Mr. Wait was chosen and commissioned first cap- tain in this department. No service outside the state was then contemplated, and we know of no immediate call upon them for service, unless for the purpose of an occasional drill.
In the summer of 1777 the Americans were alarmed at the rapid and victorious advance of the British Gen- eral Burgoyne from Canada, southward over Lake Champlain to the forts near Ticonderoga, thence mov- ing onward towards New York, along the western border of Vermont. This called Vermonters, on the west side of the mountains, to arms at short notice.
We do not know that the rangers of Cumberland county were present at the battle of Bennington, August 1-6. It is certain, however, that (through the agency of the distinguished Ira Allen, brother of Gen. Ethan Allen) Captain Benjamin Wait was commissioned about three weeks afterwards by the Vermont Council of Safety, as major of Col. Samuel Herrick's regiment of rangers, which did gallant service at that battle; also that a few days later he was on the way with the regi- · ment to regain the forts at the northern extremity of Lake George, and near Ticonderoga. The result of this expedition may be discerned in the following congratu- latory order of Gen. George Washington, dated "Head- 2
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quarters, Camp at Pennybackus Mills, Sept. 28th, 1777. .
"The Commander-in-Chief has the happiness again to . congratulate the troops on the success of the Americans to the northward."
(Then follows a reference to the then recent victory of Gen. Gates over Gen. Burgoyne at Stillwater.)
"The Commander-in-Chief has further occasion to congratulate the troops on the success of a detachment of the northern army, who attacked and carried several of the enemy's posts, and got possession of several of the old French lines at Ticonderoga. To celebrate this success the general orders that, at four o'clock this af- ternoon, all the troops be paraded and served a gill of rum per man, and, at the same time, there be discharges of thirteen pieces of artillery from the park. * *
(Signed) GEO. WASHINGTON."
In November of the same year information was re- ceived that the enemy were in possession of Mount Inde- pendence on the easterly shore of the lake (in the north- western corner of Orwell, Addison county) and also of Mount Defiance on the opposite shore. Major Wait and Captain Ebenezer Allen were sent with detachments of their regiment to dispossess them of these defences.
The following letter of Gov. Thomas Chittenden to Major-General Gates of Washington's army, states the result of that "ranging" movement :
"BENNINGTON, 22 Nov., 1777.
"We have the pleasure to inform your honor of the suc- cess of our Green Mountain Rangers in harrassing the enemy's rear on their retreat from Ticonderoga, in which Captain Ebenezer Allen with fifty rangers has taken forty-nine prisoners, upwards of one hundred horses,
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twelve yoke of oxen, four cows and three of the enemy's boats, etc.
"Major Wait, who was sent to take possession of - Mount Independence, found nothing of consequence there except several boats, which the enemy had sunk, in which there were some provisions. All barracks, houses and bridges were burnt. Cannon to the number of forty were broken or spiked up. He was so fortunate as to take one French sutler, with some rum, wine, brandy, etc."
To which we add, if such a condition of things does not describe an important capture, it nevertheless sug- gests a total rout of all but the old sutler, who bravely stood by his guns, which were slower, possibly, in kill- ing than even an old flint-lock musket of those days, but were about as sure.
Col. Herrick, commander of the regiment, promptly reported this victory to the Vermont Council of Safety, which replied through its secretary, Joseph Fay, as fol- lows:
"DEAR SIR :- I am directed by council to let you know they are much pleased at the spirited con- duct of Major Wait and Captain Allen in their late expedition, by your orders, and that acopy of your let- ter will be immediately sent to the Honorable Major- Gen. Gates, which I think cannot fail to recommend your regiment in the highest degree."
In those days the terms of enlistment in Vermont were very short, and in the following January the subject of our sketch appears to have returned to his family.
In Feb., 1778, he is found to have been employed in raising several companies on the east side of the moun- tain for Col. Herrick's regiment, with which he was re-
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quested to go as major, in an intended expedition into Canada, with continental troops under Gen. Lafayette. Copies of letters written to him upon this subject have- been preserved among the early records of state affairs. This intended expedition at length failed to go into effect, but the enlisted men were wanted by the Council of Safety, to defend the frontiers, and therefore they directed Major Wait to "inquire whether those engaged were willing to take a short tour for that purpose."
At about that time, 1778, Vermont formally organ- ized as an independent state. This opened the way to a wider field for public service, and in 1779 Mr. Wait was chosen town representative from Windsor to the general assembly, then a body of rather more than sixty members, and without any stated place of holding all its meetings. He was re-elected in 1782 and again in 1785, serving as chairman and otherwise on several important special committees.
At the session of 1779 he was chosen sheriff of Cumberland county, then a very responsible position, as will hereinafter appear. This position he held two years; then relinquished it for a year in consequence of being called again to engage in military service. In 1782, he was again elected sheriff, but for the new county of Windsor, a division of the old county having been made. He continued to hold this position by suc- cessive re-elections until the autumn of 1787, when other plans rendered it expedient for him to decline a re- election.
At the session of 1779 a special Board of War was created, having reference to the supervision of military affairs within the state. It consisted of nine men, chosen by the legislature, by ballot, from a list of eight-
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een names, proposed by a committee appointed for the purpose.
This Board of War was continued four years by annual elections, and until after the termination of the Revolu- tionary war. Major Wait was a member of this board continuously, except for the year 1781-2, when he was re-engaged in active military service.
It was the duty of this Board of War to examine into the necessity of the defence of the frontiers of the state; to decide where the frontier lines of defence should be drawn; to recommend raising troops when deemed ad- visable; to appoint their officers; to call out the militia and to attend to the wants of the commissary depart- ment, if not otherwise provided for, etc. The following incidents will illustrate :
On the 9th day of August, 1780, a party of Indians, (British allies) twenty-one in number, entered the town of Barnard, Windsor county, where they seized three men and carried them into captivity.
The Board of War were called to meet at Arlington, Bennington county, on the 21st of the same month. Whereupon they directed that forts should at once be built in the vicinity of Bethel. They appointed a com- mittee, including Major Wait, to have charge of the work; directing him to provide the necessary imple- ments for building the forts, also all necessary camp equipage; then designated two companies of the militia to occupy the forts and guard the frontier. At the same time they stipulated that the forts should be erected in the cheapest manner, having reference to that campaign only ; for, as they explained, "the lands that the several surveyors are surveying to the west and north will be settling the next spring, which will make it necessary
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that a line of forts should be erected further back." Major Wait rode from Windsor to Arlington, a distance of seventy-six miles, on Horseback to attend this meet- ing. When the board made up their bill of debentures this was his share in the charges:
Major Benjamin Wait, 2 days,
24£
Travel, 76 miles, 60£ 16s.
Total, 84£ 16s.
Nominally this would be about $413 in denominations of U. S. money now in use, for a trip requiring possibly a week's time, and including the use of his horse, and some other travelling expenses. Pleased be assured that he was, after all, no robber of the state treasury.
In payment he must take the continental currency then in circulation, which had rapidly depreciated in value, until $30 in it represented the equivalent of only $1 in good silver money. That enormous sum, then, reduced to a silver basis, was only $13.76.
In the winter of 1781 preparations were hastily made for an expected enemy on the frontier lines, established across the state from Bethel on the east to Pittsford and Castleton on the west. The governor was requested, by the general assembly, to call Major Wait on the east and Col. Fletcher on the west into active service at the frontiers.
The Board of War made a requisition for six tons of lead and 18,000 good gun flints; two-thirds to be de- livered at Bennington, and the balance to be forwarded to Major Benjamin Wait at Windsor. Thecommissary of purchases was requested to "furnish Major Wait's detachment with 50 pairs of snow shoes without loss of time," also "snow shoes to Lieut. Beriah Green's
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party of fifteen scouts, who with ten days' provisions were directed to proceed by way of Onion river to the lake, for the purpose of discovering the enemy and to make return of his discovery to Major Wait." 1
The authorized equipment of a non-commissioned officer and private in this campaign, exclusive of his clothing and blanket, was to consist of "1 good musquet, 1 good bayonet or tomahawk, 1 knapsack, 1 powder flask or horn; 1 bullet pouch and sufficient tump line or sling for packs, (this being a strap across the forehead to assist a man in carrying a pack on his back)." This campaign was after all a very quiet affair, but the troops were evidently kept on the frontier through the entire summer and autumn.
The next general assembly appears to have compli- mented our Major with a colonel's commission.
In the autumn of 1783 he was selected to take com- mand of a well equipped force of a hundred men designed to suppress a formidable insurrection in Windham county, but a timely submission of the insurrectionists prevented the march of the troops which were in readi- ness.
In the autumn of 1786 there was an attempted insur- rection in Windsor county, similar in character to the famous Shay's rebellion, which occurred in Massachu- setts the same year. A Windsor paper of that date thus described it: "On the 5th of November, 1786, be- ing the day assigned by law for the sitting of the court of common pleas for that county, in that town, a mob of about thirty men, under arms, assembled, supposed · with the design to stop the court. Sheriff Benjamin Wait and State's Attorney Jacobs waited on them, ordered them to disperse, and read the riot act, etc.
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The insurgents, finding their views baffled, dispersed, and the court proceeded to business without molesta- tion.
"A leader of the party was soon after taken for riot. He pleaded guilty and threw himself on the mercy of the court, who sentenced him to suffer one month's impris- onment, procure bonds of one-hundred pounds for his good behavior for two years, pay a fine of ten pounds and cost of suit. The mob, hearing of the matter, sent to their friends and assembled at the house of Captain Lull in Hartland, to the number of thirty or forty, un- der arms, intending to rescue. The court, being in- formed of this, ordered Sheriff Wait to collect assistance, proceed to the place and conduct the insurgents to prison, which, after a short scuffle with bayonets, the breeches of guns, clubs, etc., was happily effected with- out loss of life. Twenty-seven of the insurgents were taken and brought to gaol, most of whom pleaded guilty and were sentenced to pay fines, costs of court and pro- cure bonds for their good behavior for one year.
"On hearing of other hostile movements the militia were called for and turned out in such numbers that the insurgents did not think proper to make their appear- ance. In this affair both Wait and Jacobs were wound- ed; the former being confined twenty-six days by his wound, which was in his head."
Col. Wait was elected brigadier-general of the 3d Brigade of Vermont militia March 1, 1787, by the gen- eral assembly then in session at Rutland.
The following year, being actively engaged in prepar- ations for beginning the settlement of Waitsfield, and supposing his military career to be an end, he tendered his resignation in a letter addressed to the governor
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and council then in session at Rutland. Its reception was acknowledged by that body, August 24, 1788, and the following entry was made in the minutes of the council: "A letter received from General Wait, resign- ing his office as brigadier-general, being read, the secre- tary was directed to inform the General that they are unwilling to discharge him without further considera- tion and request his continuance in service."
Subsequently his military services were further com- plimented by the General Assembly in his election to the position of major-general of militia, this being the highest military title that could be conferred.
The preparation of this man to retire into the wilder- ness of Waitsfield to make another home, at the age of fifty-three years, and with such an experience in life, ap- pears to have been a movement to settle a large and rapidly maturing family, under what he supposed were favorable circumstances for the times in which he lived.
His oldest son, Ezra, had nearly, if not quite, reached the age of managing his own concerns, and the other sons, Benjamin, Jr., Gilbert, Thomas, Joseph and John, ranged from the age of the young man to that of the small boy.
There were two daughters, Sarah and Lois, who were married (eight to ten years afterwards) respectively to Aaron Phelps, son of an early settler of Waitsfield, and Lynde Wait, who was the first settler in our neighbor- ing town of Fayston.
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